Eighteen months ago I went on holiday and when I came back the battery in my car had died, so I had to have it replaced.
Soon after, I discovered my car has an inbuilt security system, which meant the radio, CD player and the little buzzer that goes off when I’ve left my lights on stopped working once the new battery was installed. This was because the car thought it had been stolen and disassembled.
Getting it back in working order turned out to be a long and complicated story involving a security company and strange codes I was meant to input into the radio but couldn’t, and me being a bit cross. In the course of it, I discovered if I pushed a particular button four times my car radio would work for exactly four minutes, and then turn itself off.
That’s how I’ve been travelling now for about a year. Every four minutes I push a button on the radio four times and I get four minutes of radio.
The situation does tend to bother me on long trips, and I’ve also had people knock on my door late at night to tell me I’ve left my car lights on, which is nice of them, but irritating for me.
But, sometimes, things that are intolerable at first end up becoming something you get used to over time. A mate went without a heater for a month in winter while he waited for a new part, and he and his kids got used to sitting around at night in blankets.
My mum has got used to taking the steep stairs at her place slowly, now she’s getting on a bit.
After a while we become desensitised. Like the noisy air-conditioner I don’t hear any more, the smell of my own dog I now quite like and the kids’ stuff strewn all over the house.
Now though, as our country’s leaders lie, misuse public funds, behave appallingly towards people in need and hurl insults at each other, particularly women, I’m wondering if our ability to put up with the intolerable is not such a useful trait after all.
Stoushing on the parliamentary floor can be odd sometimes, but when old rich men attempt to be funny by singling out women because of their family status, it’s got to be time to take stock. It was bad enough when Julia Gillard had to put up with it, now they’re picking on female staff.
Surely we don’t care what women in politics look like or if they’ve become too powerful or whether or not they can or will have babies, we just care that they’re there, no matter which side they’re on.
If politicians want to behave like naughty kids, can’t we just give them time-out?
The behaviour of our leaders should not be like our partners’ burps, horrifying at first but now mere background noise, or the dog bowl on the kitchen floor that we now don’t notice, or my crazy car radio situation I’m putting up with, mostly because I’m not sure how to fix it. I might be used to it but that doesn’t make it right.
